By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
About 200 conservative civic groups led by the Korea Veterans Association will hold a massive rally denouncing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions in central Seoul on the occasion of the Memorial Day on Wednesday, the veterans’ organization said.
The participants plan to issue a joint statement calling for the complete dismantlement of the North’s nuclear weapons program and halting South Korea’s ``sunshine policy’’ of engaging the Stalinist regime, it said in a press release.
Lou Dechert, president of the Korean War Veterans Association based in Washington, D.C., will deliver a speech on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and peace treaty, it said.
``Nuclear weapons possessed by the worst autocratic country pose a threat to South Korea and the world, and can devastate the Korean Peninsula,’’ said the draft statement. ``If North Korea does not destroy its nuclear weapons, we will do our best to ensure that South Korea is not taken hostage by North Korean nuclear weapons.’’